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Disabled get a raw deal even on their special Day
Dental care last priority of health authorities?
Special RPF unit to protect tracks in J&K
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One killed, five injured in separate road mishaps
Ayurvedic wing paralysed as 119 posts lying vacant
‘IG was only referring to isolated cases’
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Disabled get a raw deal even on their special Day
Jalandhar, December 3 The event began with a rally. Students of Government Junior Model School, Ladowali Road, took out the rally from Ladowali Road to Red Cross Bhawan. Physically or mentally challenged children were not part of the rally in whose honour the day was observed, though 3 to 4 disabled children were told to lead the rally to a few yards to mark their symbolic presence after which they were withdrawn out of it. Later, when the rallyists converged at Red Cross Bhawan, a programme was organised there where students from Red Cross School for the Deaf and a few mentally challenged students from Prayas School were present. One or two physically challenged kids, who had come to attend the show, faced much difficulty as the way inside the Bhawan was not accessible for them. The seats were also occupied by the students from the government school, who apparently did not take much interest in the show. The show began with one speech after the other, but for around a hundred plus students from the Red Cross School for the Deaf, the contents of these were meaningless as the authorities did not bother to arrange an interpreter for them. The officers, including those from the administration, education department and health department, kept on eulogising the government for taking initiatives for the betterment of the section. But unfortunately, they did not express any hesitation in addressing the disabled children as “apang” or “handicapped”. Most of them advocated that these children be imparted vocational training, even as the efforts were being made the world over towards incorporating them in the mainstream. Interestingly, during the event neither any welfare scheme for the disabled children was announced nor any assurance was given to make the city accessible for the section. The Assistant Civil Surgeon, Dr G.S. Nagi, amply utilised the occasion to propagate polio eradication programme scheduled to be held on December 11. While 90 per cent of the audience was school-going children, he kept on saying, “Everyone must reach the nearest polio-drop centre next Sunday and make the programme a success.” His polio-cases related speech seemed quite irrelevant for all the disabled children present there were either hearing impaired or mentally challenged. The Deputy Commissioner, who is the President of the society, was conspicuously absent from the function and his GA, who was busy with file work throughout the event, mentioned that he was out of station. Ironically, when the ADC, Mr M.S. Kainth, was asked as to why he was calling the children “apang or “handicapped”, his prompt reply was, “Then what should they be called?” But the disabled children, unmindful of the official apathy, gave the best of their performance on the occasion. The hearing impaired children of Red Cross School for the Deaf presented bhangra. Though they could not understand the rhythm of the songs, they quickly changed their steps on the indication given by their trainer. The students of Prayas School also presented a foot-tapping dance and their movements were astonishingly quite synchronised. Mr Lakhbir Singh of Pehal advocated his theory of making all children independent. Giving the statistics, he said, “Out of the total population in India, as many as 6 per cent people are disabled. If this population is made self-dependent, India could improve its economy by Rs 36,000 crore a month as these 6 crore people, on whom the government is otherwise expected to spend about Rs 500 a month, will be on their own.” He further said, “The chance that a disabled person gets a job here is almost nil. On the contrary, in the US or Canada, the employment opportunity for a disabled person is 72 per cent in contrast to 82 per cent for a healthy person.” NGO Pehal handed over a sound system each for the students of Red Cross School for the Deaf and Prayas School. Mr Anoop Vatts, President of Citizen’s Welfare and Protection Council, was also present at the function. |
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Dental care last priority of health authorities?
Jalandhar, December 3 In the absence of the government’s support, the district dental authorities, it was learnt, had to rope in financial institutions like the State Bank of Patiala and the Citizens’ Urban Cooperative Bank, which funded the dental fortnight camps, organised at various hospitals in Jalandhar, Nakodar, Shahkot, and Phillaur. Though no official came forward to give official comment on the absence of government funds, yet an official of the department confirmed on the condition on anonymity that there had been no flow of funds from Chandigarh for the second year. “We had no option, but, to get funds from other institutions,” he said. Sources in the department revealed that an annual grant of about Rs one lakh had been provided for the fortnight till 2003, but thereafter it was stopped for reasons best known to the higher authorities. Meanwhile, as many as 144 artificial dentures worth about Rs 5 lakh were provided to the needy people of the district at a function organised to mark the fortnight at the Dental Department of the Civil Hospital here. The State Bank of Patiala, it was learnt, bore almost entire expenses incurred on providing the dentures. Mr Raj Kumar Gupta, a local MLA who was the chief guest, disbursed dentures among the needy. Dr. S.P. Sharma, the Civil Surgeon, was also present. Patients with dental problems were treated at civil hospitals of Nakodar, Shahkot, Phillaur and at the school health clinic in local Basti Guzan during the fortnight, Dr Ashok Sharma, the head of the dental department of the civil hospital here, said.
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Special RPF unit to protect tracks in J&K
Kapurthala, December 3 While talking to media persons, Mr Batra said though forces were already deployed by the state and Central government to guard the tracks, a request had been made to send additional forces for the security of the railway network in the militancy-ridden state. Talking about the introduction of new safety measures, the Railway Board Chairman said anti-collision devices were being installed in all the railway zones, as these “proved successful in reducing the number of accidents in the North Frontier Railways.” Mr Batra disclosed that the pilot project on an anti-collision device given to the North Frontier Railways was going to be completed in the next five months. “The railways has spent more than Rs 150 crore on this project that Konkan Railways had developed to check accidents.” The Centre had allocated a sum of Rs 17,000 crore for over-bridges, signalling equipment and the renewal of tracks, the Chairman said. “By next year, most of the work will be completed.” On the issue of unmanned railway crossings that were causing accidents every other day, Mr Batra said that most of the recommendations made by the Justice Khanna Commission on safety measures by the railways had been implemented. Commenting on the RCF’s proposal to build on Metro coaches which were presently being imported from South Korea, the Chairman said the board was trying to secure an order of 400 Metro coaches for the RCF. Talking on the successful experiment on prototype fireproof coaches being manufactured by RCF and ICF, Mr Batra said fire-retardant material in seats, curtains and floors were being used. Replying to a question on the proposed high-speed Shatabdi on the Delhi-Bhopal section at a speed of 150 kilometres per hour for which the RCF had already rolled out a rake of coaches, Mr Batra said that he Chief Commissioner, Railway Safety, had made some observations on which the railway was working. He expressed the hope that the high-speed train would start running next year after the works like raising of walls between the tracks was completed. The Railway Board Chairman said that the famed kulhars (earthen cups) and Khadi would remain in use on the trains. Meanwhile, Rs 38 crore were being spent on the expansion of RCF after which the production capacity of the factory would increase to 14,00 coaches from present 12,00 produced annually, Mr Batra said. On the occasion, the Railway Board Chairman also inaugurated the Golden Jubilee All India Railways Golf Championship.
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One killed, five injured in separate road mishaps
Phagwara, December 3 The body of the victim, identified as Chaman Lal, a resident of Kanshi Nagar has been sent to the local Civil Hospital for post mortem. The police is looking for the driver of the vehicle. In another incident, five persons were seriously injured when the Maruti car they were traveling in collided head-on with a Mahindra Jeep near Darpesh Pind village late last night. All the injured were admitted to the local Civil Hospital in a serious condition. According to the Satnampura police, Des Raj (40), Shiv Dyal (33), Kashmiri Lal (41), Binder (41) and Som Parkash (50), all residents of Bhanoki village near here, were on their way to Phagwara from Noormahal after attending a wedding. When they reached Darvesh Pind, the jeep which was going from Phagwara to Noormahal, rammed into the car, seriously injuring all occupants of the car. However, the couple traveling in the jeep escaped unhurt. |
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Ayurvedic wing paralysed as 119 posts lying vacant
Hoshiarpur, December 3 According to a spokesman of Punjab Ayurvedic Medical Services Association (PAMSA), the posts of Director and Deputy Director of the wing had also not been filled so far. Dr K. K. Sharma was appointed as a Director after his retirement from the post of Director ESI Punjab for a period of one year, which was completed in October last. Since then no senior person of the Ayurvedic wing had been appointed as a director, the spokesman said. To fill up 12 posts of senior Ayurvedic physicians, Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) had recommended the names of some medical officers in January, 2005. But till date these recommendations had not been implemented, he said. He further said after a month these recommendations would automatically be lapsed. Office bearers of PAMSA had met Health Minister and Health Secretary many times in this regard, but no action had been taken as yet. He said that on account of negative attitude of the authorities, great resentment prevailed among the members of the association. The department rules, he added, were not creating any obstacle in the filling up these posts.
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‘IG was only referring to isolated cases’
Jalandhar, December 3 Mr Khader has stated that the IG was just pointing out an age-old example “One rotten apple spoils the entire basket,” as the latter drew attention to the fact that one isolated incident affected people’s perception about the uniformed services in a big way. |
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