Kapurthala, March 23
It was again a day of face-off between the senior Congress leader, Mr Sukhpal Singh Khaira and the Jalandhar MP, Rana Gurjit Singh.

The ‘game’ went to the MP today.

Aspiring to become the Managing Director of the Central Co-operative Bank, Mr Khaira, one of the directors of the bank, was edged out of the election process itself since he reportedly arrived late.

Mr Harjit Singh Parmar, Mr Anoop Kalhan and Mr Sukhjinder Singh Bobby were elected unopposed as the Chairman, Managing Director and Vice-Chairman of the Central Cooperative Bank.

A perturbed Mr Khaira alleged that the election proceedings were held in an “illegal and unconstitutional” manner.

He blamed Rana Gurjit Singh for this.

But the MP denied the allegations and said the election was held in a free and fair manner. “There was no scope of foul play in the elections because Mr Khaira could not garner the support of even a single director.”

According to Mr Khaira, the entire election process was completed within “10 minutes, much before the schedule of election meeting.”

In a hurriedly convened press conference at the venue of the election itself, the Congress leader alleged that the elections were to be held by the Returning Officer, Mr Gurdeep Singh, at 11 am.

“At 10.50 am when I entered the meeting hall to participate in the election, I was told by the officer that the election process had been completed.”

Mr Khaira claimed that he entered the bank’s premises at 10.40 am and went to the chamber of the manager to hand over a letter of request to postpone the election meeting of the office-bearers.

He said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had fixed a hearing for today on the civil writ petitions that asked for restraining two persons from functioning as directors of the bank.

Mr Khaira alleged that all the election proceedings today were “pre-written”.

Mr Daljit Sharma, the Deputy Registrar of the Cooperative Societies, refused to give any details of the election meeting.

He told the media persons to contact the Returning Officer for the official version.

But the mobile phone of the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Mr Gurdeep Singh, who had acted as the Returning Officer, was switched off. He could not even be found in his office in the afternoon.

Mr Khaira went to the extent of claiming that the six directors of the bank were taken out of the state and were brought here today only to attend the election proceedings.

He claimed that he had already lodged a complaint against the MP to the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, Mr Janardhan Dwivedi.

He is also the party in-charge of the Punjab Affairs.

Mr Khaira declared that he would not hesitate to move to the High Court if the authorities concerned did not take notice of manner in which the election proceedings were held today.

The roots of the controversy can be traced to the recently held elections for the post of the directors of the bank.

After the elections, Mr Khaira had alleged that Rana Gurjit Singh and Bibi Jagir Kaur were hand in glove in an effort to defeat him, which both the leaders had denied. 

Jalandhar, March 23
Three girls from the city have been selected as Army officers with the Women Commission after they cleared the test conducted by the Service Selection Board (SSB).

Raman, Ritu Jaswal, and Harleen Kaur would be leaving for the Officers’ Training Academy in Chennai on March 28 for a six-month training programme.

While Harleen and Raman have been selected for technical entry, Ritu has made it to the general duties.

The girls said the number of candidates to be inducted was far too low than those who had appeared for the test.

Harleen and Raman, both alumni of HMV College, said they appeared for the SSB in Allahabad in the last week of November. “Reaching there, we learnt that the centre was known as a ‘rejection centre’. But we kept our moods upbeat”.

Harleen, who completed her B. Tech (Electronics Engineering) from a Mohali-based college, said, “There were four centres for technical entry, each with six groups. Our group had 80 to 85 girls. A total of 45 girls were to be taken from all the four centres. On the day one, our batch was reduced to 37 through a screening examination based on psychology and ground tests. After five days, six recommendations were sent. One got a permanent rejection on medical grounds and the rest were told that they would be informed about the selection later.” Harleen’s elder brother is a Captain in the Army. He is posted in Gangtok.

“The result was declared on March 18. I called up at the Delhi headquarters and was told that I had been selected. I called up Raman. She said she, too, had been selected.” Raman had done her B. Tech (Computer Engineering) from the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology.

It was exciting for Ms Ritu Jaswal as well, who always wanted to be an Army officer like her late father, Naib Subedar Mann Singh Jaswal.

Ritu, who did her M Sc (Geography) from Lyallpur Khalsa College, said it was her third attempt at the SSB. She too appeared at the Allahabad centre and hopes to get commissioned to Army Education Corps. 

Jalandhar, March 23
While India accounts for a whopping 30 per cent of the global TB patients, the dreaded disease is spreading fast in Punjab, where an estimated 90 per cent families have at least one member infected with the ailment.

TB and AIDS have a strong relation, as established by the harrowing fact that 60 per cent of AIDS patients acquire TB or infection of the lungs, which leads to their early death.

Interestingly, experts say TB is no more a “poor man’s disease”, as recent studies have shown that it was spreading equally among the rich and poor people, and those living in rural and urban areas of Punjab.

“The risk of transmission of the disease from one person to another is also high in Punjab. If at national level, 70 persons (per lakh persons) have the risk of acquiring the disease, the same goes up to 95 persons (per lakh) in case of Punjab and other states of north India, which straightway means that people of the north are more at risk, as far as the acquisition of the disease is concerned,” Dr J.S. Cheema, the District TB Officer, said.

“India has been placed at first rank reporting the highest number of cases, as per the WHO figures. The number of TB patients in the country, with a population of over 106 crore, accounts for 30 per cent of the total TB-infected persons in the world,” revealed Dr H.J. Singh, a Jalandhar-based chest specialist, and a member of the Central Committee of the National Association of Tuberculosis.

“Punjab is also not far behind. Rather, about 90 per cent of the families in the state have at least one TB patient,” he added.

According to Dr H.J. Singh, the root cause of the intense proliferation of the disease in this part of the country was lack of awareness among people, who failed to get the disease diagnosed at an early stage and generally avoid going to a specialist.

Dr Cheema said that about 2,000 patients of TB in Jalandhar were subjected to the Directly Observed Therapy Short Course (DOTS) treatment procedure by the health authorities last year.

The correlation between TB and HIV has become a dreaded force, according to Dr H.J. Singh, who was recently given the Dr C. Srinivasa Rao National Award by the Lucknow University for his work on TB.

“Of the 3.97 million HIV positive persons in India, 60 per cent were also afflicted with TB. Same is the case with Punjab. An HIV positive case has 50 per cent more chance of developing TB,” he said.

Jalandhar, March 23
Students of Class X appearing for examination being conducted by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) have demanded a change in their date sheet.

The students said that their science practical examination had been scheduled for March 28, 29 and 30.

They said that their theory paper for mechanical drawing had been scheduled for March 28, while they had to write an optional paper for cutting and tailoring on March 29. The theory examination for music vocal, too, had been scheduled for March 30.

The students said that they would not be able to appear for both the tests simultaneously.

They said that since most of their practical tests, other than science examination, would be over by April 18, one of their theory or practical examination could be rescheduled from April 19 to 21.

Ms S.K. Saroya, Controller of Examination, could not be contacted, as her phone remained switched off.

Jalandhar, March 23
Though most of the youths in the city have not read much of his writings, Bhagat Singh holds a special place in the their hearts. It was evident on the 75th martyrdom day of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru today. A group of college students moved around the city in turbans tied the way the martyr used to do in the 1930s. They also took out a peaceful procession.

“It’s sad that the state government did not declare March 23 a public holiday,” Ishdeep Singh, a law student in the Guru Nanak Dev University’s regional campus here, said.

Rupinderjit Singh, a first year law student from the same campus, said, “We, along with 15 other friends, thought of tying the turbans in the Bhagat Singh style.”

“This a small beginning to rediscover this youth icon. We can learn a lot from his ideology,” Sahil Virdi, another student here, said.

Feelings of patriotism seemed to overpower the youths.

“We have been seeing pictures of Bhagat Singh since childhood. The movies also helped. But we don’t know much about the trial,” Pritpal Singh, a student, said. 

Jalandhar, March 23
Teams from 50 polytechnic institutes would take part in a state level two-day athletic meet being organised by the Punjab Technical Institutions Sports (PTIS) at Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic, Ludhiana, on Friday and Saturday. Mr Baljeet Singh, President, PTIS, said 18 events would be held for boys and 11 for girls during the meet. — TNS